


Origin Story

by weakinteraction



Category: Numbers (Anthropomorphic)
Genre: Multi, Other, Requited Mutual Pining, Various other numbers also appear, Yuletide Treat, probably too weird to merit the Mature rating but just in case, terrible puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 21:03:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13132164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: What starts as just another day on the number line forπbecomes a wild adventure.





	Origin Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ariesspicy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariesspicy/gifts).



_π_ woke up, ready for another day's work on the number line. Around her, as always, were her approximations: 3.14, 3.142 and 22/7 were in semi-retirement these days, the more precise decimal expansions stored in calculators and hard-coded constants in computer code doing most of the heavy lifting for day-to-day arithmetic work.

A clutch of them waved as they saw _π_ ; Three, the fore-integer of this section of the line, waved too. Three herself was still pressed into service as an approximation from time to time, when people were in a hurry or only needed a very rough order of magnitude answer. She raised her hand in acknowledgement, grateful for all that all of them did but feeling, as always, both excluded from it and apart from it. No non-trivial calculation she'd ever been involved in could have its answer expressed without using her in the first place.

Not that division and multiplication weren't fun, but _π_ couldn't help but feel that there ought to be more to it than this. She was _transcendental_ , after all. On the other side of Three was _e_ , who always seemed to be having tremendous amounts of fun. They had exchanged a few pleasantries from time to time as they had passed by each other in operations, and _π_ suspected that some of her closer approximations knew about her crush on her fellow transcendental, but a number like _e_ surely wasn't interested in someone like her.

"Hey there," said Three gently, breaking her out of her reverie. "Looks like someone's doing equilateral triangles in radians again. You ready?"

 _π_ smiled: being divided by Three was always enjoyable. The feeling of being on top of a fraction always gave her a giddy thrill at first, but the experience inevitably left her feeling diminished somehow.

With Three underneath her, they were swept down the line until they were in One's section of the line, only a little way from One themself. One and Three exchanged pleasantries, to the extent that Three could talk where she was, but, as usual, One barely noticed _π_ was there at all. One was widely known to be a bit of an integer snob, but _π_ had also heard rumours that they were overcompensating for the fact that no one ever felt anything when multiplied or divided by them. Add in the fact that anyone became them when Zero hopped on board as an exponent, and you could forgive someone for focusing on addition and subtraction.

When they were finished, Three got back up and they shot back to their original positions on the line. _π_ laid back, satisfied, but only had the opportunity for a moment's rest before Two arrived for the same thing.

Two was as attentive as he could be when dividing, but somehow things had never quite clicked between them in that position, his elbows and knees all sharp right angles. She much preferred when they multiplied, though they were much more rarely called upon to do that, all things considered.

After that, she had a while to recover. Around her, she could see one of the more precise approximations being subtracted from the older ones for a while, possibly someone doing light recreational mathematics but more likely a bored kid in a class somewhere. She grimaced at 3.14 in sympathy as he was swept away; she knew he hated to feel even a little negative.

Then something stranger happened: the approximation came past again, being multiplied by a decimal she didn't recognise at first: 2.7182818. It took her a moment to remember that that was _e_.  
That settled it; definitely a bored kid playing with calculator buttons they didn't really understand. She suppressed a stab of jealousy at the way the approximations were acting out her idle fantasies of interacting with _e_.

And then, without warning, she was much further up the number line, somewhere in the middle of Eight's section.

Then she realised what was happening: _e_ was nestled up close against her, multiplying with her.  
It was exactly the sort of thing she had always fantasised about, but real. Very close by, she could see their approximations in a similar configuration.

"I'm sorry," said _e_. "I don't know how that happened." He seemed embarrassed.

A theorem began to blossom in _π_ 's consciousness. She was good at theorems, appearing as she did in so many. "You saw what happened to our approximations," she said slowly.

"Someone bored playing with their calculator," _e_ said. "It's hardly the first time. But it is the first time that ... well, _this_ has happened. You ... don't mind, do you?"

"Far from it," _π_ said, trying unsuccessfully not to sound too eager. The ideas that were churning around in her mind finally clicked into place. "Were you thinking about this too?"

 _e_ looked evasive. "Maybe," he allowed eventually.

 _π_ 'S mind was racing too fast to take in the hint that her feelings might be reciprocated after all. "Perhaps _this_ is what being transcendental is really all about," she mused. "What if we can make things happen ourselves, without someone Out There having to think about us, or get a machine to do it?"

"Then why has it never happened before?" _e_ asked.

"Maybe it needed both of us to be thinking about it at the exact same time...." _π_ trailed off. "But if that's the case, then why would you be asking why it's never happened before unless--"

They embraced, though since they were already at the correct position in the number line there was no immediate effect. "I never dreamed..." _e_ said. "I mean there you are, famous all around the world--Oh, sorry, that's a terrible pun, it wasn't intentional, I promise. But why would someone like you ever be interested in a base number like me?"

"Oh," _π_ said. "Don't say things like that. You always seem so confident, zooming off all over the number line."

 _e_ was quiet for a moment. "Do you think it would work again?" he asked. "Us both imagining the same thing at the same time?"

"Why?" _π_ asked. "What are you thinking of?"

"If it's not too forward ... will you be my exponent?"

No sooner had he said the words than she was above him, legs wrapped around him, feeling him growing bigger and bigger as he held her up. The feeling of being on top of a fraction was as Zero to the sensation of power she felt now. She had been squared often enough, even cubed sometimes, but the experience from the other point of view was indescribably distant. Streaming past numbers _π_ rarely ever reached as high as, though she supposed they seemed terribly low to _e_ , they quickly found themselves in the lower reaches of Twenty-Three's domain.

"Wow," _π_ said, clinging on for all she was worth: if she let go, they would end up back either side of Three, and who knew when they would manage to think the exact same thing again. "This feels incredible."

"You're amazing," _e_ said. "But would you like to try something else, perhaps? I'm not sure I can hold you up there forever."

"Well," _π_ said shyly. "I'm not often a denominator, but I think I might enjoy it with you-- No, wait!" She could tell that _e_ was already imagining being above her, and had to resist thinking about it too. But she thought she had seen something. "I don't usually get this high up the line, and when I do I don't have a vantage point as good as this. Do you think you can hold on a little longer?"

"Sure," _e_ said, though his assurance was belied by an involuntary grunt of effort.

"There's something there ... _away_ from the line." She could hear the awestruck tone of her own voice, but felt no shame in it. This experience with _e_ was giving her new insights all the time.

"That's impossible," _e_ said. "The line contains everything that's real, everyone knows that. You must be imagining things."

"Maybe I am," _π_ said. "But isn't that how all this started?"

"I'm listening," _e_ said.

"You know how it feels when Minus One multiplies you and you go to the Other Side?"

"Happens to all of us all the time, doesn't it?" Some numbers were much more confident about their relationship with their inverted mirror selves than others; she was pleased, if not really surprised, that _e_ was the type to take it in stride.

"What if there's another number, an ... imaginary number, that can do the same thing in another direction?" _π_ found herself thinking about Two and his sharp right angles.

"Is that possible?" _e_ said.

"If we can imagine it, it might be," _π_ said determinedly.

And something of her conviction must have rubbed off on him, because suddenly they were elsewhere -- somewhere away from the line entirely, that neither of them had ever been before. And someone they had never met before was wrapped around _e_ , multiplying them. But _π_ could tell that their magnitude had remained the same. There were only two numbers she knew who could do that.

"Well, this is different," the new arrival said. No, this new number wasn't the new arrival, it was _π_ and _e_ who had intruded on their domain.

"Are you ..." _π_ said, "Are you a unit?"

"I'm _i_ ," they said. "I'm the square root of Minus One. Well, one of them anyway."

 _e_ seemed dubious that such a thing was even possible, but twisted his head round to say politely, "Hello, _i_ , I'm , the base of natural logarithms. Amongst other things. And this is _π_. She ... well, she makes the world go round."

"Flatterer," _π_ said. Then, addressing _i_ , "I hope you don't mind us arriving like this. We've been discovering what we can do as transcendentals, if we put our minds to it."

"It's always good to meet new people," _i_ said.

"I wonder what would happen if we added instead of multiplied," _e_ said. "Just think, _π_ , not just this new line, but a whole plane ..."

But _π_ was already thinking of something different, so nothing came of _e_ 's musings immediately. "I'd like to get to know you better, _i_ ," she said. " _e_ , do you think you could manage to hold on to both of us if _i_ came up here?"

"I could try," _e_ said. "Though I didn't know you were into threesomes in quite that way."

"I've been in plenty of improper fractions in my time," _π_ said, with a confidence she didn't really feel. "That is, if you're up for it, _i_?" 

"I'll try anything once," they said.

 _π_ wasn't certain whether _i_ needed to be synced up with them, or whether the powers she and _e_ had unlocked were sufficient alone. But she didn't want to take any chances, and there was always basic politeness to consider.

When _i_ jumped up from behind _e_ to embrace her directly, their touch gave _π_ a series of strange sensations that she had never experienced before, had no reference points to understand. But that was as nothing to the mounting strangeness of what had happened to their compound identity.

"We're ... real," said _i_ with a gasp.

"We're rational," _π_ said.

"Not just rational," _e_ said, "an integer. But ... a negative integer? Where are we?"

"I can see Zero," _i_ said, and _π_ realised with a start that of course Zero was part of both lines. Had Zero known about all this all along, and never let on the secret? Or had _π_ and _e_ only created all this now, by imagining it? Who could tell?

"I think ... I think we must be Minus One," _e_ said eventually.

Slowly, the theorems played out in _π_ 's mind: _e_ 's plane, a unit circle that they had turned halfway -- _π_ radians -- around. "Yes, I think you must be right." Further possibilties followed: _π_ considered what would happen if they called ungainly old Two over to them. If he multiplied her, the four of them would become One. If she let him divide her, it would be even stranger: they would _be_ _i_ while also containing _i_.

She didn't dare mention any of this to the others yet, for fear of it happening before she had thought through the possible consequences.

Which was why she hadn't noticed what the others had: the way One was looking at them from what was now, to them, the Other Side.

"I'm so sorry," One was saying. "I've always looked down on you transcendentals, I admit it. And I'm not even sure who you are," they added, to _i_. "But I never imagined that an integer could be as beautiful as the way the three of you make Minus One ..." They broke off, holding out their arms. "Do you think you could forgive me? Could we add, even if only for a little while?"

 _e_ , _i_ and _π_ looked at each other, then nodded as one, or at least as Minus One. They rushed towards One, One rushed towards them, and for a single brief moment, that was also an eternity of truth, they experienced the ultimate oblivion of Zero.

**Author's Note:**

> [ _e iπ \+ 1 = 0_ ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity)


End file.
